Kansas City event joins National Day of Civic Hacking, June 1-2

Kansas City hops on the motherboard of 51 cities participating in the National Day of Civic Hacking June 1-2 to “code, draw, organize, envision and plan” how to make cities better.

Each event across the country is unique, but all share the goal to “collaboratively create, build and invent new solutions using publicly released data, code and technology to solve challenges relevant to our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our country,” according to the National Day of Civic Hacking’s website.

The local iteration’s first event, Hack Kansas City, will feature a civic tech expo and a hackathon housed at Union Station, running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. A full schedule will be announced soon.

“If you just want to come see what ‘civic tech’ means and to see a glimpse of the future of online engagement, the civic tech expo is for you,” according to the site. “If you want to roll up your sleeves and improve your Kansas City, then consider joining in the hackathon!”

Organizers will provide quick presentations, code samples, mentors and food and drink. Attendees are asked only to bring a laptop and enthusiasm, but can team up in advance by connecting via #HackKC on Twitter.

KC Digital Drive, Code for America, Mozilla Ignite and Luminopolis are co-hosting the free event. Register on the event’s Eventbrite site. A limited number of travel scholarships are available for those needing help getting there.